Admiral Dennis Blair is a consultant to the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and leads various advisory committees for the Department of Defense. He was Senior Fellow at IDA from October 2002 to November 2003 and was IDA’s President from November 2003 to January 2007. He is the former Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command. As the senior U.S. military commander in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas from February 1999 to May 2002, he led the largest of the unified commands and directed Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force operations across more than 100 million square miles.
During his 34-year Navy career, Admiral Blair served at sea on guided missile destroyers. He commanded USS Cochrane (DDG-15), homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. He also commanded Naval Station Pearl Harbor and the USS Kitty Hawk Battlegroup.
Ashore, Admiral Blair served in budget and policy positions on several major Navy staffs, the Joint Staff, and the National Security Council staff. He was also the first Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. A 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Admiral Blair earned a master’s degree in History and Languages from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and served as a White House Fellow at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Admiral Blair has been awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal four times, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal twice, and has received decorations from the governments of Japan, Thailand, Korea and Australia.
